I have a mate with a copy of OS 9 and tried to load it onto my computer. However it is the original software cd that came with his imac and i have a beige G3. because of this the cd installer will not launch saying that the computer being updated is not an imac. I have the original os 8 cd that came with my G3. anyway to work around this problem and have the imac update my G3.

look on the net for a program called "wish I were" (maybe "was") this is used to trick a Mac into thinking it's another type than it is.
[URL=***********.macfixit.com/library/r-z.shtml?MFI_Session=b1e87a9a857780a90ceeaeb15eeb3b 71]Here!
[URL=***********.macfixit.com/library/tul/Wish.sit.hqx]direct D/L

I have a G3 clone that needed a clean re-install of OS9, but I didn't have the original cd's... so to get around it I borrowed one of my friend's OSX cd's that came with his powerbook. I can't remember if it was the install disk or the restore disk, I think it was the restore disk. It worked beautifully. I tried to install OSX but I didn't have the right firmware. So basically, I reformatted my hard drive (backing up all info first), then booted off the OSX cd, then installed OS9 on my hard drive.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get OSX on my machine... any suggestions?